We first discuss ‘data literacy’ as an emerging concept within a much longer historical narrative of literacy promotion. History sheds light on how defining and promoting literacy—who was literate and who was not—has been often entrenched with the constructs and perpetuation of power structures within societies—at odds with the notion of literacy as a necessarily empowering and enlightenment force. There is a risk that the same processes may play out in the age of data, at a speed and scope commensurable with those of the spread of data as a social phenomenon.